Alice Embleton

Alice Laura Embleton (1876 – 1960) was one of the first women to study sciences at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, and among the first group of women to be appointed Fellows of the Linnean Society in 1905. A biologist and zoologist, Embleton developed work on pesticides to improve crop production. She was also a noted suffragist.

Alice Embleton pictured with suffragists in Barnsley, 1910

Education and early life

Embleton was born in Epsom, Surrey, and attended Sutton High School for Girls. She enrolled at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, now Cardiff University, in 1895, and graduated in 1899 with a Baccalaureus Scientia, first class.[1]

Career and research

In 1900, she won the 1851 Exhibition Memorial Scholarship, which annually awards a three-year research scholarship to '"young scientists or engineers of exceptional promise".[2]

She used the £150 scholarship to work at the Balfour Laboratory at Newnham College, Cambridge, followed by a further period of study at the Sorbonne in Paris.[3] She is considered the second woman to publish on the topic of copepodology, after Edith Mary Pratt.[4]

In 1903, she was appointed honorary zoologist to the Board of Agriculture, and won the Royal Society's Mackinnon studentship for research into Biological Sciences.[5]

She was one of the first woman to speak at the Linnean Society, Burlington House, London.[6] Her paper, delivered on 4 June 1903, was entitled: "Anatomy and Development of a Hymeropterous Parasite of a Scaly Insect (Lecanium Hemisphoericum)".[7] Among with fifteen other women, she was made a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1905.[8] The Linnean Society archives hold Embleton's correspondence with the Society, of which she remained a Fellow until 1917.[9]

In 1906 she co-published the papers, "On the synapsis in amphibia"[10] and "On the origin of the sertoli".[11]

Alice Embleton's entry in Sutton High School's admissions register

In later life she conducted cancer research at the Royal College of Science in South Kensington.[12]

Personal and non-academic life

Embleton was connected with a number of noted suffragists, including Evelina Haverfield, Vera Holme, and Celia Wray. The 1911 census shows that Embleton was visiting Wray at Fairfield House, Barnsley on the day of the census. Like many suffragists, the two women defaced the census paper by recording their occupation as "Getting votes for women".[13]

The four women set up the private 'Foosack League' between themselves, the membership of which was restricted to women and suffragists.[14] Evidence suggests the Foosack League was a lesbian secret society.[15] The Women's Library holds correspondence between the women during World War I, in which Embleton is referred to as 'Alick', and Wray as 'Mr Wary'.[16] In her later years, Embleton lived with Wray at The Elms in Saxmundham in Suffolk.[17]

See also

Citations
  1. James, Sue (5 March 2018). "In search of a scientist – and a suffragist?". Special Collections and Archives / Casgliadau Arbennig ac Archifau. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. "Royal Commission for the Exhibition 1851". royalcommission1851. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  3. "CARDIFF COLLEGE I|1909-03-18|Evening Express - Welsh Newspapers". newspapers.library.wales. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  4. Damkaer, David M. (2002). The Copepodologist's Cabinet: A Biographical and Bibliographical History. American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-240-5.
  5. "GIFTS TO CARDIFF COLLEGE. I s|1903-10-10|The Cardiff Times - Welsh Newspapers". newspapers.library.wales. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  6. "EDITORIAL NOTES.|1903-06-26|The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard - Welsh Newspapers". newspapers.library.wales. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  7. Embleton, Alice L. (1904). "V. On the Anatomy and Development of Comys infelix, Embleton, a Hymenopterous Parasite of Lecanium hemisphæricum". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 2nd Series: Zoology. 9 (5): 231–254. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1904.tb00449.x. ISSN 1945-9343.
  8. Linnean Society of London (17 November 1904). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. London, Published for the Linnean Society of London by Academic Press [etc.]
  9. "Archives". The Linnean Society. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  10. Moore, J. E. S.; Embleton, A. L.; Farmer, John Bretland (25 June 1906). "On the synapsis in amphibia". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. 77 (521): 555–562. Bibcode:1906RSPSB..77..555M. doi:10.1098/rspb.1906.0043.
  11. Walker, Charles Edward; Embleton, Alice L.; Sherrington, Charles Scott (23 July 1906). "On the origin of the sertoli or foot-cells of the testis". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. 78 (522): 50–52. Bibcode:1906RSPSB..78...50W. doi:10.1098/rspb.1906.0048.
  12. Hobhouse, Hermione (5 March 2002). The Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition: Science, Art and Productive Industry: The History of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-7841-2.
  13. "1911 England Census for Celia Wray - Yorkshire-West Riding, Barnsley - Ancestry.com (subscription required)". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  14. "The Foosack League - General papers - Campaign for women's suffrage - Papers of Vera (Jack) Holme - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  15. Hamer, Emily (6 October 2016). Britannia's Glory: A History of Twentieth Century Lesbians. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-4742-9279-5.
  16. "Vera Holme to Alick Embleton - Correspondence - First World War - Papers of Vera (Jack) Holme - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  17. "Celia Wray", Wikipedia, 13 July 2020, retrieved 16 August 2020
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